Taxes & no refunds

Good morning! My wife and I are thinking of moving to St Croix as retirees. With the recent financial picture darkening and the USVI government just announcing no tax refunds indefinitely, how do you deal with US & local taxes? (Other than just making sure you are under withheld so you pay rather than have the government keep your refund.)

If you are retired you should have a pretty good idea what your income and taxes will be. Withhold or pay quarterly only enough to cover it. If you are VI resident you fill out the same IRS 1040 forms but send all the money to the VI instead. IRS gets nada. As long as you pre-pay as much as you owed in the previous year there is no penalty. Then again, I've not gotten an IRS refund in years and years, always having to send in more with the return, never received a penalty yet and don't volunteer one.

Overall I think you will be happy with the tax situation if you move to the USVI from NY.
Real property tax is low compared to most stateside locales.
There is No State/territory income tax - just the Federal tax rate.
There is no sales Tax -- [although business owners pay a very regressive tax] -- Gross Receipts Tax - which increases the CUL.
The property transfer Stamp Tax is on the sale price or assessed value whichever is higher.
The road tax on Gasoline is modest.
The new "Sin Tax" on cigarettes,beer, alcohol and soft drinks has dramatically raised the CUL on people buying those products. I just read this morning NYC has raised the minimum price on a pack of cigarettes to over $13 - -it is still less than $4 pk. here.
There are often 'amnesty periods' for due taxes that exclude penalties.

under No Circumstances whatsoever should you depend on an Income Tax refund for loaning the IRB your money for years.
**** Make a copy of Everything submitted to the Govt. -- "it could get lost" is why!

Don't expect to get an income tax refund check anytime soon.
Just pay exactly what you owe, if you can.
Indeed keep proof of payment copies of EVERYTHING when dealing with VI Government including cancelled checks.

They onus is on you to provide proof.
Especially true for income and property tax payments.
They're terrible.

Also, if you do happen to overpay, you can apply it to your taxes the next year.But don't expect to get a check.

You can only apply it to the next year taxes if you indicated that on your tax return when you filed. I tried to do this retroactively one year and I would have had to file an amended return, have it processed, etc, to make it happen. Had to shell out a couple of grand and wait for two years to give me the 8k they owed me from previous years.

Also, if you do happen to overpay, you can apply it to your taxes the next year.But don't expect to get a check.

You can only apply it to the next year taxes if you indicated that on your tax return when you filed. I tried to do this retroactively one year and I would have had to file an amended return, have it processed, etc, to make it happen. Had to shell out a couple of grand and wait for two years to give me the 8k they owed me from previous years.

Sounds a little silly but amended returns are not a big deal. You only have to file the differences. I just did one myself, only one sheet for what I needed. But if you think you'll ow next year might as well just do it.

Why would you "underpay FICA"? That's Social Security and Medicare, etc., which all goes Stateside through your employer in any event. If self-employed, it's your "SE Tax" at 15.3% of taxable income, which likewise you have to pay Stateside. What I think you would underpay would be the V.I. withholding, claiming more exemptions, then square up by April 15th. Or, if self employed, simply don't pay anything all year (except any gross receipts due), then pay your tax and any penalty due on or before April 15th. A lot of people, I think, do that.

Late refunds earn a 4% interest rate after June 30 of the filing year. And I rarely get a 1099 for the interest earned. If you can afford it, that's not too shabby a safe investment. Not as good a return as in the market or other methods (tax lien auctions) , but you know that you will get it back, eventually.

Last I knew, and I'm not up to date, you had to pay gross receipts monthly if you made more than $9,000 a month. They always said wait until year end, then average (less paperwork for IRB). Yes, you're supposed to pay FICA at least quarterly, or you end up paying a couple hundred in penalties.

If you make less than $225,000.00 annually, you file gross receipts on anything over $9,000.00 a month you made and you file your gross receipts annually. If you make more than $225,000.00 a year, you file monthly with no exemptions.

Filing an amended return isn't that much of a problem if you are only changing a checked box for sure! But the time that it takes them to process it can be the problem. I'm not sure why it takes them a long time to do some and not others. My case with trying to apply was a little complicated because they decided to audit my 2010 tax, but not tell me about it until late 2013 after dozens of phone calls. Then they decided to audit 2010-2013 at that time too. And again in 2014, and in 2015. No changes were made to any years. They just wanted me to bring box loads of paperwork and prove the existence of my children during each of those years with immunization cards and report cards. They wanted me to bring every invoice and receipt from a business I had as well. Three years worth of paper from a business grossing 3/4 million a year. And this was for a personal audit. My CPA recommended I give them everything they asked for until they asked for that. At that point I had sold the business, and told them if they wanted to audit the business they could, but they would have to get with my partner that I sold out to. They stopped at that point and just put the returns in line to get paid. Fun Fun!

We haven't gotten ours since we moved to the VI. In Jan it'll be 5 years. Would have been real nice to have that cash after or car got stolen this year.

Finally got my fiancé to work on his taxes for next year so he will owe and not be owed.

*** The views and opinions expressed in my posts are soley those of A&A2VI and other like minded islanders. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of the majority or any/all contributors to this site. Have a GREAT DAY!